AARP offers driver safety for baby boomers and beyond

The American Association of Retired Persons recently launched a new online course to promote safer driving.

A release from the office of Bruce Bottorff, AARP associate director of communications for Hawai‘i, states that roughly 75 million licensed drives ages 50 and older make up approximately 38 percent of all American drivers. Citing Federal Highway Administration statistics, Bottorff said that number is expected to increase significantly in the years ahead.

“National research shows that 55 percent of our members are regular Internet users,” AARP Hawai‘i director Barbara Kim Stanton said in the release. “Now it is possible to take this driver safety course when it fits into the schedules of the very active 50-plus population.”

Launched June 30, the Driver Safety Online Course presents the same information as the popular in-classroom AARP driver safety programs taught by AARP-trained volunteers throughout the United States, the release states.

The course is designed to help educate participants about how to reduce traffic violations, crashes and chances for injuries, as well as update knowledge about relevant laws and provide safe driving strategies to compensate for age-related changes that affect one’s driving ability.

The course also stresses the importance of periodically monitoring one’s own and others’ driving skills and capabilities.

The AARP Driver Safety Program is the nation’s first and largest classroom driver-improvement course designed especially for motorists age 50 and older, the release states. Over the past 26 years, it has provided instruction to more than 10 million participants in the classroom setting.

Last year in Hawai‘i, AARP offered 120 classes for a total of 1,698 program participants.

Though geared for drivers age 50 and older, the courses are open to people of any age.